CDK: The New Knight
by YamiUmiRyu
Summary: Many have seen the first attempt of Courageous Dragon Knight. It's only chapter before it was rewritten. See how the New Knight was selected. This story's a followup on Gema J. Gall's Courageous Dragon Knight.


Courageous Dragon Knight: The New Knight

_**The Squeaky Wheel is always replaced.**_

As if thrown aside against a wall, a boy of 18 years with black buzz cut hair and sagging clothing was bound with rope and his mouth taped shut with duct tape wrestled to try and reclaim his footing. His cards were scattered before him: a wild slap-together Spellcaster Deck ill-suited to play the role of the missing-link goofy idiot. He was missing more brain cells than links, and in a vote two-to-one—strike that, two-to-zero, by vice that he hardly showed up to the organization and contributed even less—he had to be let go.

This caused problems, much to the dismay of the remaining CD. In front of the disabled adolescent who acted unbelievably younger than his age, did the authors and characters, Gema Gall and Miranda Ryu, occupy two folding chairs; both of them appearing undisturbed by his futile thrashing.

Miranda, with a small mirror standing on the arm of her chair, tediously tried to aim her white contact just right into her right eye with her red bangs clipped back for the procedure. Obviously this was an act signaling boredom. To her left, Gema had a clipboard with names scribbled; some struck out because they were unfit and some given red question marks, on the note of "maybe, we'll call you." Gema's blue eyes were also dulled with boredom and the disappointment of redundancy.

"Miranda, you have another deck to review." Gema said just as the actress miko finished adjusting her contact and was given a deck, extremely thick, 60 cards at best. Before them stood a thin boy with brown haircut to hang but just above his shoulders, including his bangs, glasses, and a fragile looking but durable body built under a T-shirt and baggy jeans. He had a confident smile protruding his face under silver glints in his eyes.

As Miranda skimmed the deck, Gema began his interview. "OK, name?"

"Clark, but friends call me Loki!" He responded with an exuberant cheer, the first answer startling both girls. Gema tried to drive away from asking just how he got the nickname "Loki." "What figures you're fit for the role of Knight?" _Clark Knight hardly sounds like it can fit at all._ Gema thought with another metaphoric pitfall of wasted effort.

"Well," Clark began, "You are looking for the comic relief of the trio, right? You already have the leader-like role and the silent-smart role." Gema felt intrigued by Clark's obvious point-out and looked over her shoulder towards the laid-off Knight for a second before turning back to him.

"OK, a good start, "Gema nodded with acknowledgement, "So what's your deck strategy? Nothing too-often used I hope?" She asked, eyes shifting to Miranda just now halfway through his deck.

"I play a—" Clark nearly began when Miranda jumped to answer.

"A Light Fairy Deck. Mostly consisting of doubles and triples of various cards does explain the bettering odds to draw the cards needed. And oddly I can see almost a web, each card can help the next one way or another, because most a fairies, he uses Cestus of Dagla to full advantage, and a Black Pendant on Asura Priest can deal damage." Miranda briefed, emphasizing Clark's compliment of the silent-smarts.

Gema looked surprised. "Any drawbacks?"

"Very few, but his weakness would fall under the cards you used!" She exclaimed a reminding note to the tied-up boy, getting a glare in return. "Don't gimme that! You tried to mix, Joey's, Yugi's, and Kaiba's decks together!"

"Well that's sad." Clark side-commented.

"Thank you!" The girls spontaneously answered in unison. A moment passed to bring everything back together and resume the interview. Gema cleared her throat.

"Alright, how would you describe yourself as a person, Clark?" _Scary question._ Gema gulped for response.

"Well, I'm pretty comical, called 'God's Jester' on one account." Clark began. Getting the last phrase repeated from the interviewers. "My friend calls himself 'God of all Things Dead, Undead, and Decaying.'" Gema head slumped; Miranda was otherwise looking semi-interested-semi-fearful.

"Ohmygod! You're in my Graphic Arts class!" Miranda finally recognized.

"Seriously, you're Miranda?" Clark asked.

_This is not happening, this is not happening, she even _knows_ him._ Gema shook her head in her own self-misery.

"Does this mean I'm in?" Clark asked with hopes.

Miranda's mouth hung open as if to declare something, then thoughts of future intercepted and she shut her yap quickly. A quick pseudo-grin began her answer, "I am sorry Clark, Gema is biased on the sexual running jokes you tend to use in class. Not that I don't have confidence in you but…I believe I have a different role for you in another project, I'll call you back."

Clark had an ever-lasting smile, almost as suspicious as the infamous Trickster Priest while retrieving his deck. "Well, I didn't come all the way for absolutely nothing, we'll talk later in class Miranda, bye!" He said with a quick wave and sprinted off.

Miranda looked to Gema, who seemed to have held her breath the entire time of the meet. "You can exhale now, he's gone." Said Miranda and her partner let out a deep breath long-since held.

"Is he…really…that perverted?"

"Did you have to ask?" She countered. A moment's pause and both girls saw the end of the interviews for today. They rolled their heads back in an exasperated sigh, with the glimpse of their former third person looking quite victorious of himself. They both shot death glares and began to ponder.

Gema began, "We need someone funny yet clean on his jokes."

"Does it have to be a he?"

"A girl would ruin the gender comedy we had from the start."

"True, regardless of what male we'd get, he'll still feel outnumbered. But we don't want one that takes advantage of that and calls bragging rights."

"Someone like Chocolove from _Shaman King_. He great-nature, no-kill policy, and he was perfect comic relief."

"Very true, and he has to have his moments to be serious…with maybe a taste of comedy to make so not all hope seems lost."

"Maybe someone that makes an impression on movies. We all have our down-to-earth points. Our last Knight wasn't even close to Uranus."

"…I wished you'd have said a different planet, and I'm not saying that for the name gag alone, used WAY too often." Miranda's final comment broke the conversation as the two began to fold up their chairs, and packing up another wasted day. From the silent room of which the interviews were held, suddenly had a light bebop theme, instantly recognized as The Bowler's intro theme from _Mystery Men_.

"Hey! Hey-loo!" A voice called to Gema and Miranda as one last person came in, "Am I too late for the auditions?"

Gema looked uncertain to the newcomer's appearance being a bit trashier than the last, with hair clearly unevenly cut over and under a black headband, and a tan-colored over shirt over a faded blue T-shirt and jeans to match. His face glowed with enthusiasm, the copper irises just intensifying his sunshine attitude. Gema leaned towards Miranda, "I don't know do you have the time?" After getting a shake in return, "Yeah, tad bit late, gonna have to be the third wheel somewhere else."

"Well isn't that a bit harsh?" Miranda tried to argue, "Hey, can we at least look at your deck?" She asked him.

"No problem," he grinned and handed over his deck he pulled from the deck box on his belt. Gema put her and Miranda's chairs to the side and took another look at their hostage, still seemingly smiling under the duct tape. "By the way, name's Kenyon."

Miranda nodded and shuffled through his deck, looking intrigued within each card. "This Spellcaster deck is constructed differently than from what I've experienced before…and ingenious." Gema turned around on the comment. "Uses Mirage Knight as best monster, modest construction of the rarely seen…and I especially like the idea of Legendary Flame Lord." Kenyon's grin was wider than ever as Gema joined the observation.

"Dark Magician of Chaos too…these boasting cards, and yet they're not the only hope of this deck. There's a lot of ways to bring out one of the three of them." Gema added.

"This deck has a wider web than Clark's. I am very impressed." Miranda finished looking through and handed the deck back to Kenyon.

"So your name's Kenyon?" Gema asked.

"Yep, that's my name."

The girls exchanged looks to each other and then back at Kenyon, both with smiles that haven't surfaced all day. Gema finally acclaimed, "How does the name 'Kenyon Knight' sound?" Miranda and Kenyon lit up.

"Kenyon Knight... That sounds so perfect!" Miranda expelled the happiness not normal to her character and pleaded to Kenyon with admiration. "Oh you must accept the position, even by your looks and your introduction to us, it's perfect! Absolutely and without doubt."

Gema smirked, "We're you aiming for The Bowler entrance?" Kenyon pulled two earphones on high volume from around his neck and hit the stop button on his MP3 player. Gema and Miranda couldn't refrain from breaking into laughter as Kenyon joined in.

"I live my life on any and all movies effects and morals on human nature." Kenyon answered.

"No kidding?" Gema asked.

"Not at all! All movies reflect the dreams of the directors and those who were involved, sometimes it's how someone looks at the world." Kenyon replied, perking Gema and Miranda once more.

"This one's perfect!" Gema agreed. _It's like he just sprung out of our heads!_

There was a rip behind them, duct tape splitting in two. "What! You plan to replace me with him!" The tied-up Knight roared.

"Um, yeah, the girls like me." Kenyon said with a smile, "They say I'm fit for the spot."

"Oh no! Not until this Knight has something to say about it!" He exclaimed with the ropes breaking from his arms. He gathered up his cards into his Battle City-style Duel Disk. "We'll Duel, Spellcaster versus Spellcaster! If I win, you have no place here, I don't care WHAT they say!"

Kenyon glimpsed to Gema, who gave him another Duel Disk. Kenyon then shot a look back at Ed, a serious Yusuke moment before he let loose a can of whoop. "Is that how you treat your partners that put up with your antics through one whole story of conferences—if there was barely any conferences at all? I'm standing right here, the girls saying nothing about your reference directly, and I can already see a failure, like a minor antagonistic annoyance." Kenyon's second movie/series reference made Edgar's blood boil.

"Just shut up and move!" Edgar growled as their LP struck 8000 and the moves began.

* * *

Turn three clicked by quickly. Kenyon at a slight disadvantage of 5200, facing against Edgar's Dark Magician of Chaos he pulled out quickly, and he had a full 8000. Edgar had a smug look of victory, "You can't possibly beat my Dark Magician, I'm not letting you get a single monster out on the field to bring out your big guns." 

Kenyon drew and there came a grin so wild that it wasn't a poker face. "First, I activate Cost Down, this lowers my monsters' levels by 2 by discarding one card from my hand. Then since I did that, I can summon this monster, Cybernetic Magician (2400/1000)!"Kenyon's strategically summoned creature amazed Miranda since she was familiar to the game. Gema was also surprised; despite her no-duel policy, she couldn't stop studying the cards. Kenyon's creature stood to boast the same as Edgar's Dark Magician.

"I rest my case, Kenyon's deck is very malleable." Miranda nodded.

"And so modest, he doesn't use the trump cards unless he must." Gema added.

Miranda chuckled, "Define 'trump card'—that deck has more than one way to win."

Kenyon found victory. "Now I'm going to activate my monster's special ability, by discarding another card, I can change the original attack of any monster I choose to 2000; this means that I could strengthen one of mine for a heavier hit, or weaken one of yours if things get too rough." Kenyon paused, making brief movie suspense. "I'll go with the latter! Your Dark Magician of Chaos is weakened to 2000 and an easy target for my Cybernetic Magician. Attack!" Kenyon jumped into the Battle Phase has his Magician blew away Edgar's and his Life Points pegged to 7600.

Edgar's fear seemed revealed. _That was my strongest card, I have nothing left!_ "I surrender!" Edgar raised his hands in submission. Kenyon's shoulders slumped in a dumbfounded way, while Miranda and Gema behind him took the retreat as no surprise at all.

Gema placed a hand on Kenyon's shoulder with the biggest smile of approval. "Welcome to CDK Kenyon Knight. When can you start?"

"Not on Tuesdays or Fridays."

"Why?"

"Those are theater movie release days normally, I always go to see the latest production. But I'm available all five other days if you are." Kenyon answered, getting an accepting nod from Gema. "Quick question, what's Miranda going to do to him?"

CLANG tolled the bell that had just hammered Edgar's temple and knocked him out cold. Gema giggled.

"One of Miranda's character perks: when idiocy gets on her nerves, she'll whip out a dense but portable temple-bell and rope and whack the instigator." Gema answered.

"And being the comic relief, I'm gonna get it anyway?" Kenyon had a moment of uncertainty before going back to confidence, "Well, every role has its drawbacks."

_Finally, someone that's smart about story lines strengths and weaknesses!_ Gema could just explode and throw confetti, celebrating the New Knight. "Keep up the movie criteria of your personality. It is your best human attribute that we can drop into the script easily." Gema smiled and the two left with Miranda coming up from behind.

Kenyon turned around, "You're just going to leave him there?"

"And eye for an eye and a cold shoulder for a cold shoulder." Miranda answered, and the trio felt good company with each other. They left to begin the rigorous rewrite of _Courageous Dragon Knight_ and likely, CDK2, which didn't seem so hard in the long run with their New Knight.

* * *

Author's Note: Believe it or not, this duel _actually_ happened. How very, very sad. 


End file.
